[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #14 - 9 msgs

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Today's Topics:

   1. Iraq's "king of reconstruction." (ppg)
   2. =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Iraqi_Family_Devastated_By_=91Unwelcome_Visitors=92?= (Mark Parkinson)
   3. O'Neill's Claims Supported by 1998 Memo (cafe-uni)
   4. Hussein's POW Status Could Change - Rumsfeld (cafe-uni)
   5. Iraqis March In Basra For Direct Elections (cafe-uni)
   6. Danish Tests Show Arms Found in Iraq Not Chemical (cafe-uni)
   7. IRAQ: NGO registration causes controversy (ppg)
   8. WMD Inspector David Kay Quits, Won't Return to Iraq (cafe-uni)
   9. Turkish PM:  'If Disintegration in Iraq Takes Place, We Intervene' (cafe-uni)

--__--__--

Message: 1
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Iraq's "king of reconstruction."
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 17:56:22 -0500

US Navy veteran faces biggest challenge handling Iraqi reconstruction effor=
t

The DailyStar - 14/01/2004   http://tinyurl.com/2pu87


LONDON: "There is so much money sloshing around," US Navy veteran David Nas=
h
said shortly after being appointed to head the occupation forces' new
Program Management Office (PMO) in Baghdad =AD a job that makes him, in the
opinion of the Financial Times of London, Iraq's "king of reconstruction."

Almost three months later, the money is still there =AD but it's not sloshi=
ng.
It's frozen.

At the end of December, as allegations of cronyism and corruption cast a
shadow over the rebuilding process in Iraq, the Pentagon froze the $18.6
billion for reconstruction that Congress had approved only a month earlier.
Companies keen to get a slice of the pie were told not to expect requests
for proposals, and analysts say new contracts are unlikely to be issued
until well after the initial target date of Feb. 1.

"We're on hold and we'll be on hold until we hear differently," Nash, a
former head of construction of the US Navy, told a construction trade
journal, his brevity speaking volumes about his disappointment.

The decision to put reconstruction on ice came at the end of a month in
which the Pentagon announced that it had opened two investigations into
possible misconduct in Iraq. The first concerns allegations that US giant
Halliburton may have overcharged for fuel brought into Iraq by as much as
$61 million. The second responds to growing anger about a contract, worth
hundreds of millions of dollars, for a cell phone grid that was awarded to
three Arab consortia in October. The service should have been running by
spring. At the beginning of this month, however, construction had yet to
begin.

The freeze comes as a bitter reminder of the complexity, and the pitfalls,
of the task confronting Nash, a retired admiral who has not hidden his
belief that the US cannot waste more time getting Iraq up and running. Like
many inside and outside the US administration, Nash appears to believe the
violence scarring the occupation will lose steam once electricity is on all
day, water is running and jobs are created. On his watch, he wants "maximum
impact on the person on the street."

Long gasoline queues and power failures have caused violent anti-US
demonstrations and remain at the top of most Iraqis' criticisms of the
Coalition Provisional Authority running their country. Nash's importance in
Iraq cannot be overstated: In the battle for hearts and minds =AD and an en=
d
to violence =AD reconstruction is an absolutely key component.

"We must maintain the momentum in electricity, in security, in petroleum,"
Nash told companies interested in rebuilding Iraq in November. "We really
have to go to work quickly. We'll get all contracts awarded no later than
Feb. 1."
That is already impossible. The past has come back to haunt Nash even befor=
e
he has begun.

The US reconstruction effort in Iraq is the largest nation-building exercis=
e
since World War II. Over the next two years Nash will have to orchestrate
more than 2,000 simultaneous construction projects. In this fiscal year
alone, he will have to account for more than double the $8 billion annual
budget he administered for the US Navy. His task, he has said, is twofold:
"to manage the whole $18.6 billion and to execute a part of it."

"When I started all this," he told a conference of businessmen, "somebody
said: 'Does anyone know how to spend $18 billion?' But this is the kind of
thing I've done most of my life" =AD from Vietnam to the construction
conglomerate Parsons Brinckerhoff, where he spent five years as a senior
vice-president after retiring from the navy. "The construction itself is no=
t
that complicated. What's complicated is doing this all at the same time."

Despite decades of experience in running multibillion-dollar construction
projects, Nash acknowledges that Iraq is his biggest challenge, and many
solutions will have to be found on the fly, requiring "creativity" and
"flexibility" from all involved.
"I find myself in the same position Columbus found himself in," he said.
"When he left he didn't know where he was going; when he got there he didn'=
t
know where he was; when he got back he didn't know where he had been. And h=
e
did it all on borrowed money!"

The creation of the PMO came in response to a recognized need to coordinate
and streamline reconstruction =AD a process that has been fragmented from t=
he
outset, with USAID, the US Army Engineering Corps and various branches of
the Department of Defense all awarding massive, complex contracts. Under th=
e
new organizational structure, all these groups will come under Nash's
umbrella in the hope that closer oversight will put an end to accusations o=
f
corruption and mismanagement.

One of Nash's biggest challenges will be to dispel the charges of cronyism
and lack of accountability that have deepened distrust of US intentions in
Iraq. So far, at least, the lion's share of reconstruction has gone to US
firms =AD most controversially, to two with close connections to the Bush
administration: Halliburton and Bechtel. The Open Society Institute's Iraq
Revenue Watch Project has accused the CPA, headed by Paul Bremer, to whom
Nash reports, of falling short of international standards of accountability
in managing Iraq's public finances. It has called for greater transparency
and Iraqi involvement.


Whenever he speaks in public, Nash promises transparency, accountability an=
d
"full and open competition" =AD and seems to mean it. "Our books will be op=
en
to the world," he has said. "I work better when there are clear lines of
authority and accountability."
"Communicate," he urges company bosses. "If you think we've got something
wrong, tell us!"

But many believe that the decision to bundle the reconstruction work into 2=
5
major contracts will replicate the crony capitalism of Saddam's days, when =
a
handful of Iraqi clans controlled the economy, by favoring large companies
like Bechtel and Halliburton which have established track records of runnin=
g
multi-project programs. Some also fear that the fast-tracking Nash wants
will necessarily conflict, at times, with full competition and
accountability.

Nash also faces a logistical nightmare or three. How to repair the national
grid without shutting the country down. How to move the supplies he will
need into Iraq at the same time as the US army is conducting the largest
troop redeployment in its history, competing with the Pentagon's
transportation command for port space and already inadequate trucking and
rail facilities. How to repair pipelines while others are trying to blow
them up.

How, too, to convince Iraqis that their country is being fixed when most of
the work that is planned in a first stage =AD repairing electric plants and
oil refineries, for example =AD will take place out of their sight.
"We've got to make sure that the transmission tower is there the day after
we put it up," he says. "We've got to be able to build in the environment
we're in. I think it's possible. I've seen it done before =AD in Vietnam,
where I started my career."

The Vietnam parallel may not be auspicious. Columbus is perhaps a better
bet: He turned out to be a hero.



--__--__--

Message: 2
From: "Mark Parkinson" <mark44@DELETETHISmyrealbox.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:53:03 -0000
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Iraqi_Family_Devastated_By_=91Unwelcome_Visitors=92?=

http://www1.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=3D32882&lang=3Den

14.01.2004 [19:27]

BAGHDAD, January 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) =96 The family
members of Al-Saud Al-Kubeisi have many things to remember since the
fall of Baghdad and the overthrow of the brutal regime of Saddam
Hussein.

On November 7, 2003, Shukria have a few hours to sleep in relief, as
the 60-year-old woman =96 already suffering from high blood pressure
and heart failure =96 woke up to the noisy knocks of an unexpected and
also unwelcome visitors.

All at the large house dropped out of their beds, wondering who they
(the visitors) could be.

The visitors could be thieves and looters working undeterred in the
dark since the country fell into a cauldron of bubbling and seething
insecurity.

They could be relatives seeking help in a capital many of its
inhabitants are plunged into dire straits as unemployment and
insecurity hitting all-time high.

But the comers were neither thieves nor relatives, since they were in
military outfit and armed to the teeth.

"We are coalition forces. Open the door now, or we will break it," a
soldier with an Iraqi accent forced the words out.

The coalition is an euphemism for Anglo-American occupation forces in
the oil-rich country.

Fear swept contagiously across the hearts of the house occupants,
standing up for a much terrible scenario many of Iraqis have
witnessed or heard of.

"Get out of the house, or we will kill everyone inside," the invading
forces harshly said.

All rushed out, hands raised and some of them in their night gowns.

The soldiers jumped on Shukria's son. Ferociously chaining the 25-
year-old Asaad, the old sick mother went unconscious.

Others were also held in shackles and left surrounded in the severe
cold of the garden.

"Even my husband was tightly held, putting his life on the line,"
remembered the grieving Shukria.

The 75-year-old Shawki (her husband) was suffering asthma, which
needs intensive care and no dispense with Oxygen tents.

A short time afterwards, the family members had enough time to
contemplate the horrible surrounding atmosphere =96 more than 80
soldiers deployed at the place, warplanes oozing overheads and thick
rays of light shed on the targeted house.

"They turned the area into a military barracks," Shukria recalled.

Local inhabitants were infuriated that the raid was unjustified, as
just two guns were recovered =96 one licensed by the U.S. occupation
authorities.

The appealing cries of the children by no means deterred the invading
soldiers, who rather used the family members as human shields inside
the house.

"You are financing terrorism," the soldiers said before detaining
Shawki =96 whose head disappeared into a black bag that revived
memories of the old regime's violent practices.

Shawki was detained with his three sons and a Sudanese driver despite
Shukria's cries that "this is unfair. He is sick".

After the raid, the family discovered that the safe =96 in which tens
of thousands of dollars and dinars were kept =96 was looted after
forcibly broken.

The whole house also plunged into a mess =96 doors and windows broken
and refrigerator destroyed =96 a compliant always given by the local
inhabitants after U.S. massive detention campaigns.

"It is the same style of burglars. They did not ask for keys to open
the safe, but rather forced it open," said Shukria.

Shukria said the U.S. troops could have acted on a wrong tip-off, but
conceded the action is by no means justifiable.

"My husband and three sons are now in prison for this," she said,
joining many residents with dozens of tales on the detention of their
sons unjustly.

The situation was not different from that on Thursday, where hundreds
of angry Iraqis waited outside Baghdad=92s infamous Abu Ghraib prison
for the promised release of detainees held by occupation forces for
carrying out resistance attacks.

=91=91Liars! Liars! They won=92t let them out!=92=92 a woman screamed as sh=
e
emerged from the detention camp. Others railed against =91=91unjust
detentions=92=92 among the thousands of people held without detention or
charge.

Other Concerns

Now, Shawki's family has other concerns to voice; where and why he
and the other three sons were detained and how long would they still
be in incarceration.

"They do not allow us to get answers of these," said Ahmed Shawki,
the only son not behind bars.

The release of detainees has been a top demand of the country=92s
community and tribal leaders, as well as human rights advocates who
say families are searching for relatives who get detained and are not
heard from for months.

"We thought that the Saddam regime was history. Given the U.S.
military practices, the injustice is now much bigger," he said.

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets after the capture of Saddam
last month carrying placards in support of the former Iraqi leader,
saying they are now under more brutal rule and what many Iraqis see
as long-standing occupation.

"Before the fall of Baghdad, the Iraqi soldiers have broken into our
houses only after getting an official permission from the court,"
Ahmed said.

He also remembered that Iraqi soldiers were allowing the house
occupants to change their bed clothes, something deemed important in
such a conservative society.

Iraqis feel resentful that promises of a better future made by the
United States before the Iraq invasion in March have turned empty
with lack of security and deteriorating level conditions besetting
the oil-rich country.

British soldiers clashed Saturday, January 11, with armed, stone-
throwing protesters in southeastern Iraq, killing six people, as
impatience with Iraq's occupying forces boiled over as unemployed
Iraqis pelted British troops with stones.

Although the U.S. and British forces gave no date for pack up and
leave, Iraqis feel impatient for the situation to be back to normal.

Sitting in the house =96 where sadness and frustration are running
high, Shukria has nothing to do but praying for an end to the
detention of her husband and three sons and military occupation.

 By Wissam Al-Kubeisy


Mark Parkinson
Bodmin
Cornwall




--__--__--

Message: 3
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject:  O'Neill's Claims Supported by 1998 Memo
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:03:57 -0000




> January 14, 2004
> O'Neill's Claims Supported by 1998 Memo
> The Rummy/Wolfowitz War Letters
> http://www.counterpunch.org/leopold01142004.html
> By JASON LEOPOLD
>
> Anyone who doubts former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's recent claims
> that President Bush mislead the public and secretly planned the Iraq war
> eight months before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 needs to read the
two
> letters sent to then President Bill Clinton in 1998 and Speaker of the
House
> Trent Lott by current members of the Bush administration urging Clinton to
> launch a preemptive strike against Iraq.
>
> Back then, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy, Paul
Wolfowitz
> and other pro-war hawks lobbied Clinton and Gingrich to remove former
Iraqi
> President Saddam Hussein from power using military force and indict him as
a
> "war criminal." Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, both of whom were working in the
> private sector at the time, were affiliated with the right-wing think tank
> Project for a New American Century, which was founded by Weekly Standard
> editor William Kristol in 1997 to promote America's foreign and defense
> policies.
>
> Other familiar names on PNAC's roster of supporters include Richard
> Armitage, currently Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Perle, one of the
> architects of the Iraq war and former chairman of the Pentagon's Defense
> Policy Board, and Robert Kagan, a former Deputy for Policy in the State
> Department's Bureau for Inter-American Affairs during the Ronald Reagan's
> presidency. Kagan is also co-chair of PNAC.
>
> PNAC has been instrumental in helping the Bush administration shape its
> defense policies. Since Bush has been in office, PNAC has succeeded in
> getting Rumsfeld to scrap the multibillion-dollar Army Crusader Artillery
> Program and also advising the Defense Secretary to request a $48 billion
> one-year increase for national defense, both of which were written about
> extensively in reports posted on PNAC's web site before Rumsfeld was
> approached by the group.
>
> However, one of PNAC's first goals when it was founded in 1997 was to urge
> Congress and the Clinton administration to support regime change in Iraq
> because Saddam Hussein was allegedly manufacturing chemical and biological
> weapons, claims that today have turned out to be untrue.
>
> "Only ground forces can remove Saddam and his regime from power and open
the
> way for a new post-Saddam Iraq..." PNAC founder Kristol wrote in a 1997
> report. Kristol's Weekly Standard magazine is owned by News Corp. Chairman
> Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the Fox News Channel, considered by many
media
> critics to be the mouthpiece of the Bush administration.
>
> A year after Kristol's report, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Armitage and
> other PNAC members sent a letter to Clinton, repeating much of what
Kristol
> said in his report a year earlier.
>
> "We urge you to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a
> strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power," says the letter sent to
> Clinton. "This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and
> military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and
> difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of
failing
> to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under
> existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military
> steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American
> policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on
unanimity
> in the UN Security Council."
>
> However, in an ironic twist, Clinton rebuffed the advice saying his
> administration was focusing on the worldwide threat posed by the terrorist
> group al-Qaeeda and it's leader Osama Bin Laden, who was responsible for
the
> 9/11 terrorist attack and who Iraq war critics say the Bush administration
> should have been focusing on after 9/11 instead of Saddam Hussein.
>
> The 1998 letters to Clinton and Gingrich seems to back up the revelations
> made by O'Neil in the book "The Price of Loyalty" that the Iraq war was,
in
> fact, planned in the days after Bush was sworn into office-possibly even
> earlier-if you consider that between 1998 and late 1999, when Rumsfeld and
> Wolfowitz, the chief architects of the Iraq war, they spent nearly two
years
> lobbying Congress to use military force to overthrow Saddam Hussein from
> power.
>
> When Clinton refused, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz and others from PNAC wrote
> another letter on May 29, 1998, to Gingrich and Senate Republican Majority
> Leader Trent Lott, saying that the United States should "establish and
> maintain a strong U.S. military presence in the region and be prepared to
> use that force to protect our vital interests in the Gulf-and, if
necessary,
> to help remove Saddam from power."
>
> "We should take whatever steps are necessary to challenge Saddam Hussein's
> claim to be Iraq's legitimate ruler, including indicting him as a war
> criminal," says the letter to Gingrich and Lott. "U.S. policy should have
as
> its explicit goal removing Saddam Hussein's regime from power and
> establishing a peaceful and democratic Iraq in its place. We recognize
that
> this goal will not be achieved easily. But the alternative is to leave the
> initiative to Saddam, who will continue to strengthen his position at home
> and in the region. Only the U.S. can lead the way in demonstrating that
his
> rule is not legitimate and that time is not on the side of his regime."
>
> All of the Iraq "war" letters are posted on PNAC's web site,
> www.newamericancentury.org
>
> The letters offered no hard evidence that Iraq was in possession of
weapons
> of mass destruction but it did say that with Saddam Hussein in power "a
> significant portion of the world's supply of oil will all be put at hazard
.
> . ."
>
> Jason Leopold can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
>
>
>




--__--__--

Message: 4
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject:  Hussein's POW Status Could Change - Rumsfeld
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:04:38 -0000





> Hussein's Status Could Change
> Wednesday, January 14, 2004; Page A04
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14672-2004Jan13.html
>
> Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been classified by Pentagon
> attorneys as an enemy prisoner of war, but his legal status could be
> reviewed at any time to reflect crimes committed against the Iraqi,
Iranian
> and Kuwaiti people, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
>
> While Hussein's status relates to actions he took as commander of the
Iraqi
> military before the end of major combat operations in Iraq on May 1,
> Rumsfeld said, Hussein could also be "prosecuted for activities after May
1
> involving the insurgency and the killing of coalition troops."
>
> But Rumsfeld said that a U.S. military trial for Hussein is at the "lower
> end of the probability range," as President Bush has clearly signaled tha=
t
> he wants the Iraqi people to be "engaged" in Hussein's prosecution.
>
> -- Vernon Loeb
>
>
> =A9 2004 The Washington Post Company
>
>




--__--__--

Message: 5
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Iraqis March In Basra For Direct Elections
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:05:40 -0000




> Iraqis march in Basra for direct elections
> Thursday 15 January 2004, 15:24 Makka Time, 12:24 GMT
> Al Jazeera/AFP
> http://tinyurl.com/3dbb2
>
> Tens of thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets of Basra in support
of
> Ayat Allah Ali Sistani's unrelenting call for general elections in the
> transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government.
>
> "Yes, yes to Sistani; no, no to selection," shouted the demonstrators on
> Thursday as they headed towards the city's Al-Abilla's mosque.
>
> They came from all corners of the southern city and its surrounding areas,
> answering a call by Ali Abd al-Karim Safi al-Musawi, Sistani's
> representative in southern Iraq.
>
> Iraqi police were seen everywhere even as helicopters of the British
> occupation forces hovered overhead.
>
> The Ayat Allah has rejected the creation of caucuses that would put in
place
> by May a transitional assembly, which in turn would select members of a
> caretaker government by June. This plan was outlined in the 15 November
> power-sharing agreement between the US-led occupation administration and
the
> Governing Council.
>
> AFP
>
>




--__--__--

Message: 6
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject:  Danish Tests Show Arms Found in Iraq Not Chemical
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 13:06:15 -0000





> Danish Tests Show Arms Found in Iraq Not Chemical
> Wednesday, January 14, 2004 12:24 p.m. ET
> http://tinyurl.com/3bw6k
>
> COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The Danish Army said on Wednesday initial tests
> showed a cache of mortar rounds found buried in Iraq on January 9 did not
> contain any chemical substances as originally suspected.
>
> "The expert group from the Iraq Survey Group have investigated five ...
and
> none of them have showed any trace of chemical substances," the Danish
Army
> Operational Command said in a statement.
>
> Samples would be sent to the United States for further tests and the
results
> were expected within three to five days, the command said.
>
> Denmark said its troops found the 36 mortar shells buried in southern Ira=
q
> and that early examination had suggested they could contain blister gas.
>
> The shells had been buried for at least 10 years, it said.
>
> Blister gas, an illegal weapon which Saddam Hussein said he had destroyed=
,
> was used extensively against the Iranians during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq
> war.
>
> President Bush ordered U.S.-led forces to invade Iraq after accusing
Saddam
> of possessing weapons of mass destruction. No such arms have been found s=
o
> far.
>
> Copyright =A9 2003 Reuters Limited.
>
>




--__--__--

Message: 7
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: IRAQ: NGO registration causes controversy
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 08:15:47 -0500

IRAQ: NGO registration causes controversy  http://tinyurl.com/22z2g

BAGHDAD, 13 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Worried that terrorists could use local or
international aid agencies to hide what they're doing, US administrator Paul
Bremer recently issued a rule calling for all of them in the country to
register.

Those who don't register could be forced to pay five percent tax on the
goods they bring into the country, according to the rules. Since Bremer is
the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), or temporary
administration in Iraq, the rule is legally binding.

Ultimately, those who don't register could also be kicked out of Iraq, and
that is part of what makes aid workers so annoyed, said Claudia Rodriguez,
coordinator of the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq, (NCCI) who disagreed
with the rule. The aid coordination group, started in April, receives
funding from the United Nations and the European Union.

"As far as the international humanitarian community is concerned, they
should be outraged," Rodriguez told IRIN in Baghdad. "This is a precedent
that should not be set," she asserted, adding that NGOs did not want to
highlight their presence in the country for security reasons.

The new ruling calls on aid groups to register and "prevent the misuse of
non-governmental organisations for fraudulent or illegal purposes." Aid
groups must say where they get their money or other support from, who
contributes to it and what activities it is used for.

Those issues appear to address concerns that have been raised in the US
about various questionable humanitarian agencies alleged to be funnelling
money to on to supporting terrorist groups. Aid groups in Iraq will also be
required to submit quarterly activity reports under the rule.

US-led administrators have met representatives of some of the unhappy groups
to see what can be done to modify the rule, said Roberta Rossi, a
spokeswoman for the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), which funds many of the US-based NGOs.

"International NGOs are unhappy about it because it's already signed and in
place," Rossi said. "Several provisions are problematic (including) what's
going to happen once the transition takes place."

Following the United Nations bombing on 19 August in which 22 people were
killed and repeated attacks on aid agency workers, coalition troops, Iraqi
police and various civilians, security is tantamount for aid workers,
Rodriguez maintained.

No international or local aid office in Baghdad has a sign outside to
identify what it is, and most are in private houses. A list of groups and
their addresses is closely guarded by the NCCI.

Groups are afraid to give their addresses out, even to government
administrators, Rodriguez said. Additionally, if aid workers do not want to
affiliate themselves with the US-led temporary government, which may put
them more at risk of attack, they shouldn't have to, she asserted.

US-based aid groups often take armoured military escorts with them for
protection, a measure which has drawn criticism from European aid groups and
others looking to maintain a separate identity from US-led military forces
in Iraq.

"We're trying to defend the little neutral space we have left," Rodriguez
explained. "This has the potential to violate basic international laws. It's
also very ambiguous, so they can deny the right of any NGO and tell them to
leave the country arbitrarily."

Financial questions in the registration are also much more detailed than
they need to be, according to Mathieu Ebbesen, operations officer at Enfants
du Monde, a French NGO which receives funding from the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the European Commission Humanitarian Office
(ECHO), among others.

"They ask for financial information for three years before. We don't have
all the documents here," Ebbesen said. "If we have to do it then we have to,
but it's a huge job. The situation is messy enough here, we have enough to
do already."

But aid groups have to register in any country, and Iraq should be no
different, said Richard Harman, head of the US-based International Relief
and Development (IRD) office in Iraq. Coalition authorities may be asking
for too much information, but they're acting as the government right now, he
said. "In every country, NGOs have to register for tax status. The (rule) is
pretty straight forward," Harman said.

International Medical Corps, another US-based group, has not decided whether
to register or not, said Rabih Torbay, vice president for international
relief and development programs at the IMC office in Iraq. Torbay agreed
with IRD that registration was always a requirement of working in a foreign
country, however.

"If we have concerns about the registration, we'll say, 'Here are our
concerns'," Torbay said. "But usually if you don't register, you can't
import anything or get duty-free status."

NCCI is asking US administrators to consider amendments to the rule,
especially for an expiration date, so a new process can be decided with the
scheduled handover of authority to an Iraqi government at the end of June,
said Philippe Schneider, Rodriguez's counterpart.

The group also wants administrators to clarify the appeal process groups
would need to use if they are denied registration, Schneider said.


[ENDS]





--__--__--

Message: 8
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject:  WMD Inspector David Kay Quits, Won't Return to Iraq
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 11:02:00 -0000



> WMD hunter "won't return to Iraq"
> Fri 16 January, 2004 04:02
> http://tinyurl.com/24e2z
> By Tabassum Zakaria
>
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq,
has
> told the CIA he will not return to his post, a U.S. government source has
> said, a move that critics could seize upon as a sign that he has given up
> hope of finding banned arms.
>
> "He has told the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet) that
he
> doesn't want to go back, they have been trying to get him to stay," the
> source told Reuters on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
>
> It was unclear whether the CIA had had any success in persuading Kay, who
> came back to the United States for the Christmas holidays, to stay on the
> job, the source said.
>
> A CIA spokesman declined to comment. Kay, reached earlier this week, also
> declined to comment and referred questions about his status to the CIA.
>
> Tenet last June appointed Kay, a former U.N. weapons inspector, as a
special
> adviser to lead the search for biological and chemical weapons and any
signs
> of a resurrected nuclear weapons program in Iraq.
>
> But the hunt, which is being conducted by the Defence Department's Iraq
> Survey Group, has come up empty, finding no stockpiles of biological and
> chemical weapons or any evidence that Iraq had restarted a program to
> develop nuclear weapons.
>
> The Bush administration cited weapons of mass destruction as its main
> justification for the war against Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein from
power
> last April.
>
> A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, called Kay's
> status "up in the air."
>
> Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton of the Defence Intelligence Agency, who heads the
> Iraq Survey Group under Kay's guidance, was returning to Iraq this week to
> continue the weapons search.
>
> U.S. officials last month said Kay had told administration officials he
was
> considering leaving the job as early as January, citing family
obligations.
>
> At that time, officials described Kay as frustrated that no banned weapons
> were found and that some of his staff had been diverted to other tasks.
The
> White House also said the weapons hunt was a priority for the
administration
> whether or not Kay stayed on the job.
>
> The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last week issued a report
> that accused the Bush administration in the lead-up to the war of making
the
> threat from Iraq sound more dire than the underlying information
warranted.
>
> The report's authors said they did not expect any large stockpiles of
> biological and chemical weapons to be found.
>
> Copyright Reuters
>
>




--__--__--

Message: 9
From: "cafe-uni" <cafe-uni@DELETETHISfreeuk.com>
To: "Casi News" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Turkish PM:  'If Disintegration in Iraq Takes Place, We Intervene'
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 11:05:28 -0000



> 'If Disintegration in Iraq Takes Place, We Intervene'
> January 16, 2004 Friday
> Zaman
> http://www.zaman.com/default.php?kn=6043
>
> Ankara, Bagdat (Baghdad), TURKEY,IRAQ, January 15, 2004 - Prime Minister,
> Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said yesterday that in the event of Iraq's
> disintegration, Turkey will intervene. Erdogan stated that Iraqi Kurds are
> trying to take the oil regions under their control and "this should not be
> allowed. Kurds should be prevented from playing with the fire," warned
> Erdogan.
>
> Upon receiving the Islam Revolution Supreme Council Leader, Abdulaziz
> Al-Hakim, Erdogan brought to attention that Iraq's territorial integrity
> should be protected. According to information given, Erdogan said: "We see
> the efforts of two Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq to turn the present
> situation to their advantage. We are surprised by this and we do not think
> this is right." The Prime Minister emphasized no ethnic and religious
> discrimination should occur in Iraq. Erdogan stressed the importance of
the
> Iraqi government to be formed in June.
>
> Erdogan said the government supports that 'Iraqis determine Iraq's
future,'
> and added that, in the event of disintegration in Iraq, neighboring
> countries will intervene. He said: "Syria and Iran think the same as well.
I
> say with sincerity that Iraq's freedom is our greatest priority.
> Disintegration of Iraq means instability for us. Your happiness is our
> stability."
>
> While Erdogan underlined the fact that all the Iraqi groups have to have
> equal status, Al-Hakim said Turkey's assistance is needed as they prepare
a
> Constitution and form a new government. The Shiite Leader emphasized that
> they support Ankara playing a significant role in Iraq. He said the
meetings
> in Ankara were historical and important and that they were beneficial,
> constructive and successful. In addition, there is a desire to improve
> cooperation with Turkish trade and civil society organizations, Al-Hakim
> stated.
>
> Barzani and Salih Receive Harsh Rebuke
>
> On the other hand, in a meeting with 30 Kurdish, Turkmen, and Assyrian
party
> representatives yesterday, Iraq Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) Leader,
> Massoud Barzan, claimed an agreement on federalism with the Iraqi
Temporary
> Governing Council was reached. For Kirkuk, he said, a special solution is
> required.
>
> 'In Iraq, provinces cannot be administered separately,' said Barzani,
> insisting that Kurdish people will decide how to shape their relations
with
> the center.
>
> The statement, "Kirkuk is a Kurdish city", made by PUK high-ranking
official
> Berham Salih, who is expected to visit Ankara today, received harsh
reaction
> from the Foreign Ministry.
>
> Zaman, Cihan News Agency / Ankara, Bagdat (Baghdad) / TURKEY,IRAQ
>
>






End of casi-news Digest

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